


That's Love

by alittlenutjob



Category: The Mindy Project
Genre: Brotp
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-10-15
Updated: 2014-10-15
Packaged: 2018-02-21 07:37:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,369
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2460188
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/alittlenutjob/pseuds/alittlenutjob
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Just a post "The Devil Wears Land's End" fic for fun. Not beta read, just a quickie. As always I own nothing but the laptop.</p>
            </blockquote>





	That's Love

“Oh, hey, uh. Deb Deb. You remember me? Danny Castellano? From the night with the... uh,” Danny stuttered as he realized halfway through his awkward introduction that there was pretty much no way she'd forgotten, and more importantly she probably didn't really want to talk about her wife kissing his girlfriend. He'd been channel surfing from the armchair in the lounge for almost half an hour now, and in classic Castellano style he'd managed to turn a simple greeting into another awkward exchange he'd berate himself for later. Luckily she took pity and jumped in.

“Deborah, I prefer Deborah. Nice to see you again. I'm just dropping Jean off.”

“Sorry. Deborah.” He shoved his hands in his hoodie pockets with a nervous smile.

“That's fine. We didn't really get a real introduction.” She crossed the room and planted herself firmly on the sofa, picking up the remote control and tuning to C-SPAN. “You waiting on your girlfriend?”

“Mindy? Yeah. She thinks when she schedules these procedures for late afternoon she can get out of making me dinner, but I'm taking her home as soon as she gets done.”

“She's really cooking? She didn't seem the type.”

“She's not. I've had food poisoning twice since this started.” His stomach actually turned a little thinking about it. The last bout had been with Mindy's saag paneer, which she admitted had some substitutions, but she was a little iffy on what she substituted for what.

“Shit. So... she ever make good on the?” She waggled her eyebrows suggestively with a grin.

“Hey!” Danny smiled despite himself as his phone buzzed. He dug his phone out of his jacket pocket and studied the screen with a frown. “Well, that's that. The delivery is gonna be a while. I guess I should go get something to eat.”

“Tough luck.” Deborah dropped the remote control onto the coffee table and got up to go.

“You wanna come with?” Danny blurted, seized by the unexpected desire to actually hang out with someone.

She turned on him with her mouth hanging open in surprise. “Seriously? What is wrong with you two? You can't just hit on me 'cause my wife isn't here.”

“What? No! I'm not hitting on you. I know you're married. I just don't feel like sitting around in this lounge. I thought I'd offer since you guys are new to the city.”

“Oh, thanks. Yeah. Let's go.” Deborah looked relieved, and smiled as Danny shrugged a leather jacket on over his hoodie. “You can hardly blame me for thinking you're a sex maniac. I mean, Mindy...”

Danny grinned back and chuckled. “I know. I know.”

* * *

 

“Mindy never lets me come to this place,” Danny grumbled as they waited for the first round of beers. “Too dive-y.”

Deborah looked around at the clean but well-worn furniture and the framed photos of boxers lining the walls. She shrugged. “It doesn't look that bad to me, but I'm from Boston.”

“You a Sox fan?” Danny regarded her suspiciously.

“Nah.” Danny visibly relaxed as the waitress put a couple of bottles down in front of them. “I never cared too much about baseball.”

“You don't like baseball?”

She took a swig of her beer and shrugged. “Nope.”

“What do you do with your spare time?”

“Jean.” She grinned wickedly as Danny choked on his own beer.

“Jesus! You don't pull punches.”

“Relax. I'm just messing with you. Well, I'm not. You do know women hit their sexual peak later than men, right? So you've got that to look forward to.” Deborah saluted him with the beer before taking another long drink.

The waitress put down two plates, both burgers with double fries. “Hey, maybe don't say anything about the burger? I give Mindy so much shit about eating junk food, but damn the burgers here are great.”

“Ditto with Jean. She's been giving me the 'no red meat' spiel for like six years, but the heart wants what the heart wants.”

“Okay.” Danny nodded thoughtfully before attacking his food. The TV in the corner was just a little too far away to see what's on, but they both watched as they ate in silence. Danny gave up about halfway through the burger, just sitting there digesting while Deborah finished her own. “How you like New York?”

"It's not bad. I mean, Boston's a big city too and you'd think the sounds of a city are kinda the same everywhere, but they aren't. I sleep weird.” She swiped a couple of Danny's leftover fries and popped them into her mouth. “You know when Jean took this job she promised she wouldn't be working nights anymore.”

It was Danny's turn to shrug. “Eh, it's the nature of the job. Babies turn up when they turn up.”

“I know. It's just...lonely sometimes. We don't really know anyone here. I mean, I'm getting to know some of the people at work, but every time they ask if Jean and I can go out I have to turn them down.”

“Why don't you just go by yourself?”

“Jean's the sweet one.”

Danny's eyebrows raised almost to his hairline. “Jean's the SWEET one?”

“Careful. That's my wife.”

“You're right. I guess I only know her as the boss. She comes off kinda rigid.”

“She's not. Believe me. It's probably why your girlfriend tried to hook up with her.”

“Mindy didn't. Mindy's not a lesbian.”

“You sure about that? I heard about the bathtub.”

“Don't worry about her, she's very well taken care of. I'm sure. She's just really open. Sometimes she wants people to like her so much that she doesn't draw clear boundaries.”

“And that doesn't make you mad?”

“Nah. It's a good thing. We'd have never been friends if she hadn't been so pushy and loud and irritating and persistent. She makes it impossible not to let her in.”

“Jean's like that. She's so funny and smart. And sexy. It draws you in. People don't invite me places, they invite Jean and figure I'll come along. I can be kinda... closed off.”

“You don't seem that closed off. I mean, if you don't mind me saying.”

“Huh, I guess I don't right now. You're kinda easy to talk to, you know that?”

Danny shook his head. “You are probably the first person who has ever called me easy to talk to.”

“Well, you've got something about you. And I guess maybe we're in the same boat. It's hard to love a woman like Jean, and I bet Mindy's got her moments too.”

“Mindy's not hard to love. She's hard to live with, but she's not hard to love.”

“That's a nice way to put it. You'd have made a good lesbian.”

“What makes you say that?” Danny patted his pockets down as the strains of a song he definitely didn't pick filter up from his pocket. Apparently his new ringtone was something about an anaconda. “Why does she do this?”

Deborah gazed back to the TV with a smirk as Danny fumbled with the phone. “I heard you're good with your mouth.”

Danny dropped the phone. “Are you kidding me? I told her to stop telling people that.” He'd missed it by the time he got the phone back in his hand, but as per usual she chased it with a text. “I gotta go. She's out of surgery.”

Deborah's expression dropped ever so slightly. “Well thanks for showing me this place. It felt almost like home for a minute.”

Danny regarded her thoughtfully as fished his wallet out and threw a couple twenties on the table. “Hey, you wanna do this again next week?”

She smiled. “Yeah. Just get my number from Mindy.”

“Mindy has your number? Why's Mindy have your number?”

“She was gonna pay me to build those Adirondack chairs so she wouldn't have to.”

Danny rolled his eyes. “Christ, Mindy.”

“So you sticking to your story?” Deborah stood up to put on her jacket and get our her own wallet.

“What story?”

“Mindy's not hard to love?”

Nicki Minaj blared from the phone in his hand for the second time, beseeching him to look at a butt, and Danny smiled. “The heart wants what the heart wants.”

 

**Author's Note:**

> Sorry so sloppy, and about the lame title, I just love Deb.


End file.
